The best gifts...

In my lifetime, God has blessed me with some wonderful friends.  Mostly, God has surpised me with friendships that were totally ordained by him.  I'm not one of those people who has friendships from my childhood that have lasted my whole life.  We moved several times when I was growing up.  And I had good friends at each location, but it's hard to keep really close friendships long distance when you are growing up.  I'll admit, there are times when I'm a little jealous of people who have been best friends since they were kids.  That is a gift!  BUT...God has more than made up for that with the friends he has given me over the past twenty years. 

Harrison has several friends that he has known since he was little.  I love looking at pictures of Harrison and Braden when they were toddlers and then seeing them both now that they are six feet tall.  Or Harrison and his buddy Bradley, who even though Brad moved away several years ago, they have truly maintained a good friendship long distance.  I've found the friends Harrison has to be such a blessing.  There is nothing like knowing your children have wonderful friendships. 

And Clara, bless her heart, has been drug around to all her big brother's activities since the minute she came home.  And I'll admit I haven't been as good at fostering close friendships for her.  But God is faithful, even when I'm not.  Harrison and I are people who need that one very best friend.  We have lots of friends, but we need to know that we have that one BFF who has our back no matter what.  Clara...well, she likes to have everyone be best friends.  She includes everybody.  She is the girl I wanted to be best friends with growing up.  She's easy going, everybody loves her, she's forgiving, she doesn't mind sharing.  She's much like my best friend Jenny from junior high and high school. 

It's funny how things work out.  We finally found a flock (small group) at church that was the right fit for us.  It's a family flock.  We meet in someone's home and bring the kids and we eat dinner, worship, study the Word, and pray together.  In the midst of finding this flock, God brought me a friend...another Jenny...who totally gets me.  Now I've been blessed with my "C" friends, Christine and Christi, who not only get me, but love me in spite of me.  And I figured that was pretty generous.  But...God went ahead and gave me another friend as a bonus. 

Well, about 16 months ago, Jenny and her family welcomed their new daughter Lauren into their family.  Lauren was almost five when she came home from China.  She had a "special need"...except someone forgot to tell her that.  Lauren's hands and feet are shaped different from most peoples.  But, that child can do just about anything you can imagine, she is one independent little fire cracker.  She is loud and hilarious and absolutely contagious!  Well, Lauren and Clara have become buddies.  Lauren often calls her buddy "MyClara" when she speaks to or about her.  These two make me laugh.  They had their first sleepover the other night.  And Lauren promptly came down with tap shoes on (did I mention we have brick floors?).  We learned pretty quickly to hide the microphone with the amplifier when Lauren is coming...did I mention she is loud? 

But what I love the most about these two little cuties is how sweet their friendship is.  Clara never tries to mother Lauren.  But she watches and then if Lauren is having trouble doing something with her hands, Clara will sweetly ask "would you like any help?"   One time in the car when they were getting buckled I heard Clara say "it must be kinda hard to do that with just one finger."  Lauren said "yeah, sometimes." It's not because she sees Lauren as having a "special need", it's just Clara's heart to want to help.  And Lauren, she truly loves and appreciates Clara.  She is the picture of happiness when she spies her friend Clara.  The other day Lauren was here and it was beautiful outside.  So the girls were drawing with sidewalk chalk.  I snapped a picture of the girls tracing each others hands.  It is a beautiful picture of their friendship.  You see neither one of them sees the other as different, they just see their friend.  Isn't that how God wants us to see each other?  Just the way He sees us.

                                                     Best Friends

                                            You just never know what they are up to.

Thank you God, for sweet friends!